Saturday, January 7, 2012

Two British Columbia residents have been murdered in Mexico as the Canadian government continues to urge caution about travel to the country.

The bodies of Carmen Ximena Osegueda Magana, 39, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and her Mexican boyfriend, Alejandro Honorio Santamaria, 38, were found partly buried at a beach in Huatulco.

Police said they had been stabbed and their bodies set on fire, likely after being robbed.

The Mexican-born Ximena Osegueda, as she was known in Canada, was in the country conducting research.

Robin Wood, 67, a retired mechanic from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, was killed last week by robbers in a home invasion at Melaque.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs department said 112 Canadians were killed in accidents, murders, drownings or suicides in Mexico from 2006 to 2010.

Travel warnings suggest Canadians should “exercise a high degree of caution due to a deteriorating security situation in many parts” of Mexico.

It warns to “avoid non-essential travel” to the border areas between Mexico and the U.S. “due to continuously high levels of violence linked to organized crime.”